Harvard Law Postpones Ames Moot Court Rounds to Spring, Citing Graduate Student Union Strike

Harvard Law School will postpone the qualifying and semifinals rounds of its Ames Moot Court Competition to the spring, citing the ongoing graduate students’ union strike, according to an email sent to competitors Wednesday afternoon.

Ames — the Law School’s flagship appellate brief writing and oral advocacy competition — begins in the fall of law students’ second year, and the final round takes place in the fall of their third year.

The HLS Board of Student Advisers — a group of second- and third- year law students who teach first-year legal writing, mentor first-years, and organize the competition — typically grades the briefs students submit. BSA members are represented by the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers, which began its second strike this year on Oct. 27.

The qualifying round has two phases. In the first, all teams — each made up of four students — were invited to submit an appellate brief by Oct. 16. The top 16 advancing teams were announced the following Friday, and those teams submitted their appellate brief last Friday, after the strike had already begun.

The second phase also includes oral arguments, which was slated to take place on Nov. 18 and 19. BSA members grade both phases’ written briefs and judge some of the oral arguments alongside HLS faculty and practitioners.

The postponement will give teams months of additional time – including winter break — to prepare for oral arguments.

Director of Community Engagement, Equity, and Belonging Allison Patenaude wrote in the email that the BSA plays “an integral role in the Ames competition.”

“We recognize that this is a challenging moment for competition participants, for students who are on strike, and our broader community,” Patenaude wrote. “We also recognize that this change is disappointing and inconvenient, especially for those who have devoted significant time to preparing for and supporting the competition.”

“We will share updates on the timing for the qualifying and semifinal rounds as it becomes available,” she added.

BSA president Ruth H. M. Jaensubhakij ’22 wrote in a statement that the organization did not make the decision to postpone the qualifying round, adding that “our members learned this information at the same time as the competitors.”

“However, we do believe that postponing the Qualifying Round respects the collective action of student workers, acknowledging that this competition cannot take place without the work of the BSA, while still preserving the integrity of the competition that means so much to the HLS community,” she added. “We remain deeply committed to the Ames Moot Court competition and its participants, and we look forward to returning to this important HLS tradition in the spring.”

Last year, case information for the semifinal rounds was released to teams on Jan. 28, two days after the spring semester began. Written briefs were due in late February, and oral arguments took place in mid-March, before spring break.

The final round, between teams of current third-year law students, took place Tuesday night.

An HLS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The competition, which began in 1912, has been called off only once before: from 1917 to 1919, during World War I.

HLS students have publicly backed the University’s labor unions at least twice this year. Last Friday, roughly 40 HLS students staged a ‘study-in’ at Langdell Library calling on the University to reach an agreement with the school’s clinical instructors after more than two years of negotiations, and 250 students signed an accompanying petition.

In the spring, during the graduate students’ first strike, roughly 200 then-first year law students signed letters supporting the strike and urging their professors to press the University to reach an agreement.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.